[quote]dagill2 wrote:
Keeping it simple is picking a proven program, doing it as written with all the intensity and focus you can muster, it will work.
Learning about the details of training and building a plan from the ground up is not simple, but will also work.[/quote]
This is a very important point.
I personally think it’s important to learn the details and understand how a lot of this stuff works, that way you have that knowledge to use in the future. But you can easily crash and burn if you try to apply that knowledge too soon, before you know enough.
My recommended course of action is to pick one reputable program and follow it to the letter for a long time. While doing that, go ahead and learn as much as you want about other programs and other training, but don’t change your training. Then, eventually, pick another prewritten reputable program that fits more in lines with how you want to train, based on what you learned, and follow that to the letter. And keep learning more and more.
And then eventually you’ll have a much better idea of what you want, how to train for it, how other people have trained for it, and can start designing parts of your own program.
If you try and apply the things you learn too soon, you’ll probably get sidetracked from your goals.
Also, the important rule of thumb from above… if something’s working for you, don’t change it (too much) until it stops working.